Metals phytotoxicity assessment and phyto maximum allowable concentration

Abstract

In this paper, the influence of metals (Cd, Pb, Cu, Co, Ni, Zn) on plants of spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) was investigated in polluted sod podzolic sandy loam on layered glacial sands and calcareous deep chernozem on loamy loess soils. We propose to highlight the metals’ phytotoxicity with help of the phyto maximum allowable concentration. The Phyto Maximum Allowable Concentration is a permissible level of metals for plants in polluted soil and represents the safe degree for plants in contaminated ecosystem. The phyto maximum allowable concentration gives the possibility to estimate and to forecast the danger of metals for plants as a biological object that plays a very important role in the life of ecosystem. This approach may be applied for another metals phytotoxicity assessment for other plants.